Youngstown Academy
Smiling student in a blue polo sitting on a rug with classmates.

100% 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee.

Teachers Who Chose to Stay.

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(330) 746-3970
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  • Tuition-Free
  • Individualized Instruction
  • Accessible to All
  • Community Partnership
  • Safe & Caring Environment
  • Support Services
For Youngstown families who want a school that feels like it's been waiting for their child. You can tell when a school has turnover. New faces every September. New rules every quarter. Your child spends half the year training the adults instead of being taught by them. Youngstown Academy of Excellence is a tuition-free public charter school in Youngstown, Ohio, serving Kindergarten through 8th grade. The school met 100% of Ohio's 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee. Ten teachers have been at YAE for five or more years. Six have been there for more than a decade. Six hold master's degrees. This is a building where the adults chose to stay, and that stability is the foundation everything else is built on.
  • 100% compliance with Ohio's 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee.
  • 10 teachers with 5+ years of service at YAE. 6 with 10+ years.
  • 6 teachers with master's degrees.
  • STEM instruction, Financial Literacy, Duolingo, Culture Class, and Sports 101.
  • Bilingual support and career exploration programs.
  • Traditions that build belonging: Knights of the Round Table, Motown performance, 8th grade clap out.
See what enrollment looks like for your child.

Get Your Child's Enrollment Info

It takes about 60 seconds. You've been through schools where your child had a different teacher every year. Sometimes mid-year. You've sat in conferences with someone who's been in the building three months and is already reading from a script about your child's progress. You know what that feels like, and you know your child does too. This school is the opposite of that.

Teachers who know the building, the kids, and the families

When a teacher has been at a school for ten years, she doesn't need to look up your child's file. She remembers the older sibling. She knows the family. She can spot the difference between "struggling with the material" and "having a bad week at home" before anyone fills out a referral. That kind of knowledge doesn't come from a training. It comes from staying.

More than reading and math

STEM. Financial Literacy. Duolingo for language learning. Culture Class. Sports 101. These programs exist because the school believes a child who only learns traditional subjects is missing something. A fifth-grader who understands compound interest has a different relationship with the future than one who doesn't. A third-grader learning another language through Duolingo is building a skill that compounds every year.

Traditions that make a school feel like a place

Knights of the Round Table. Student of the Month. Art shows. The Motown performance. Spirit days. Holiday performances. Bingo nights with families. The 8th grade clap out, where the whole school lines the hallway and sends graduates off. These aren't optional activities. They're the culture. And a child who spends nine years inside a culture like this walks out with something most schools never give: a sense of belonging.

Family is part of the model

Family nights. Read Your Heart Out events. Costume parades. Fall Fest. Graduation ceremonies for Kindergarten and 8th grade. This school doesn't just educate your child. It invites you in. Regularly. Intentionally. Because Heather Knapp's team learned a long time ago that a child does better when his or her family is in the building, not just on the mailing list.

Everything you just read? It costs nothing.

  • No tuition.
  • No application fee.
  • No fees of any kind.
  • Free breakfast and lunch every day.
  • Transportation provided.
  • Tutoring and counseling available.
Youngstown Academy of Excellence is funded by the state of Ohio. Your tax dollars already pay for it. Your child walks into a school every morning. The question isn't whether he or she will sit in a classroom. The question is whether the adults in that classroom have been there long enough to see your child clearly, care enough to act on what they see, and stay long enough to watch it work.

You've read what this school is about. Here's where you find out if there's a seat.

 
Call us at (330) 746-3970 or complete the form to learn more today!